Maul and Kenobi
by the unknown spirit
Summary: Before the two foes face each other for the last time, the pair share a small conversation. One that really changes nothing between them, but simply puts things in perspective for the two warriors destined to fade away as the galaxy moves on without them. Naturally a One-shot


As the silhouette of Ezra Bridger began to fade into the night horizon, Maul and Kenobi, two people's who's destinies seemed to be intertwined far more than each would've ever imagined or wanted stood across from each other as a small fire illuminated the the space around them. Neither said anything for the longest time as the flames kept on cackling between them. Their eyes being their only appendages that moved as each peered over the old warrior before them. As with all things, time hadn't been exceptionally friendly to them. What had once been two powerful warriors who had commanded armies that were feared across the galaxy, now seemed frailer and more unassuming than what would've ever been thought possible.

"After all the years, of all the billions of planets we could meet on it had to be this one didn't it?" Maul said in a tone that sounded just as strange to him as it did to Kenobi. It wasn't as rage fueled as it should've been nor as threatening. More than anything, it just felt tired.

"The will of the Force is unpredictable." Kenobi replied intrigued by the question. "Being as old as we are, we should know that by now."

"A fair point." Maul said looking down at his mechanical legs. "I certainly never predicted quite this is how I would end up. An old, broken, shell of what I thought I was destined to be. Something I have you to think for." Maul finished with a flash of anger appearing in his eyes.

"Is that why you came here Maul?" Kenobi asked his old foe his own gaze hardening. " Is vengeance really what's kept you going for so long?" Kenobi asked.

Maul opened his mouth to reply with a resounding yes but no such word appeared. The anger began to fade from his eyes as his mouth closed and in a move that he never thought he would do, he thought about the question that was posed to him by the man who had caused his life to spiral downhill.

"Yes…But I…I'm not sure if that's the only reason." Maul admitted in a low gravelly voice. "For a time, I thought you perished with the rest of your order and I felt…nothing. No joy, no relief, just emptiness. And when I learned that you were alive, the thought of killing you myself filled me with more joy than anything in over a decade." Maul said smiling at the memory when he and young Ezra activated the Holocrons and the realization of Kenobi's survival.

"Yet, here you are and I see you haven't activated you light saber." Kenobi said noticing the cane-light saber contraption that Maul was currently leaning on remained inactive.

"Good to know you haven't gone blind in your old age." Maul replied with a light chuckle, surprising the both of them though not necessarily unwelcome by either.

"No. My looks maybe gone but my sight's still working. Though who know's how long that will last." Kenobi said with a rarely seen smile dropping his guard slightly. "What do you want here Maul?"

"I want vengeance." Maul said his anger returning and clenching his fist hatefully.. "I want Sidous to die by my hand. I want his puppet Vader to bow at my feet. I want to topple his little Empire. And I want you to….." Maul stopped mid sentence as he once again looked over to the elder Jedi with a confused face. "I wanted you to suffer as I have suffered." Maul finished repeating a line he had said years ago back in the Clone Wars before looking back at the ground in a defeated manner.

"And yet, I know I can not have any of those things." He said with more sadness and regret than Kenobi would've thought was possible from the man before him. "I don't have the strength to defeat either Sidious nor Vader alone, and even if I kill you, even if I put you through each and every possible punishment I've had had in my mind since the day you cut me in half…... You never would truly suffer as much as I did, would you?" Maul said sitting down and staring at the fire in an unheard of act of self reflection.

"Don't assume I haven't had my share of suffering since last we've met Maul. I don't need to tell you what has happen to the Jedi." Kenobi said crouching down and stoking the fire taking his eyes off Maul for the first time and thinking back to the many friends he had lost the day Order Sixty Six was issued. "I've lost many friends in the years since we parted. And even my own brother." Kenobi finished, his mind stopping on the nostalgic confidant face of his apprentice turned friend and brother.

"A brother?" A brief vision of Savage flashed before Maul's eyes before disappearing just as quickly. "Skywalker you mean?" Maul asked barely remembering the image of a young Jedi knight who he had often heard would travel with Kenobi through the Clone Wars. "Was it Vader or the Sidious who ended him?"

"Both." Kenobi said taking his eyes away from the flames and instead toward the starry sky above them in a look of sadness. "It seems it was my lot in life to lose the ones I cared about. Qui gon and Satine to you, and Anakin and the Jedi to Vader and the Empire."

" The Darkside takes all that it can leaving us as husks." Maul said remembering his own losses in the form of his mother and brother. " An after effect you Jedi never had to suffer from." Maul said agreeing with his old adversary. He wasn't apologetic, nor was he regretful for Kenobi's loved ones. But it was simply a statement of fact. Despite all he had done to Kenobi, He still had an air of content and even humor to him that had always managed to get under Maul's skin.

A swell of silence grew between the two before Maul spoke again.

"I am nothing…...Aren't I?" Maul asked over to Kenobi after he to looked up to the sky and it's thousand visible stars.

"What?" Kenobi asked shocked by the former Sith.

"My hatred for you, Sidious, the Empire. It all really amounted to nothing in the end." Maul repeated blinking up into the night sky. His voice rocking with defeat at the realization. "Nobody in the galaxy or even the galaxy itself cares about who I was, what I did, what happened to me, and what I had to endure. Despite all my struggles to make my mark on life, for all my accomplishments, my name was forgotten almost instantaneously."

Kenobi really didn't know what to make of Maul's words, so he chose to remain silent.

"And when I die, that's it. I'll just be gone. The universe will just keep going on like I never existed."

"Death and being forgotten are inevitable Maul." Obi Wan replied remembering his own lessons drilled into him since he was a child with the Jedi.

"And you Jedi just accept it." Maul growled out pointing a finger to his old enemy. "I've always hated that about you. Your superiority. If death is inevitable Kenobi? Then what's the point of life at all. What did either of us accomplish in the end?!"

"Nothing of any major accomplishments." Kenobi replied. "We were born. We grew up. We made our decisions and we lived with them."

"That's….That's….." Maul's face contorted with rage as several dozen grains of sand stared to lift into the air as Maul's force abilities started to leak into their surroundings. "That's it?! Why aren't you angry?! Your order's gone, maybe a five of you are left in the galaxy, who each spend their on the run from a government that they fought for. And yet you simply shrug your shoulders and...and…" Maul went silent for a moment before a strange sort of smile crept up to his face. The sand dropped back down to the desert and he continued. "It's funny. I never considered it but, you Jedi are rather heartless aren't you?"

"To some. Perhaps we are." Obi Wan admitted leaning back from the flames and looking back over to Maul. "But don't mistake my contentment for happiness. I've debated with myself over the years if what I'm doing is right."

"Really? You?" Maul asked with a chuckle.

"Oh yes." Kenobi said with a elderly laugh. "There were times…More so then I'd care to admit, that I thought of striking out on my own against the Empire like young Ezra and his friends. To take the fight to the Emperor himself and try to restore peace to the galaxy. To avenge those who have died before their time and those who are suffering even as we speak."

Maul grew intrigued at his old adversary's words leaning forward to hear him continue. " Then why not do it? What's keeping you in the desert?"

"The Jedi code." Kenobi answered. "Whatever ever else I may be, I am a Jedi. And a Jedi does what he does for what he thinks will be for the greater good. No matter how many second thoughts or doubts he may have."

That didn't leave much room for interpretation. Kenobi was clearly out here for a reason. And if Maul's instincts were right, then he couldn't very well blame him.

"Is he the chosen one?" Maul asked. Kenobi didn't respond save for a glance in his direction with hardened eyes. Eyes that promised a fight if Maul had any intentions for the youngling he was guarding. What Kenobi saw in Maul's eyes though didn't reveal any sort of thinking like that. In it's place was simple curiosity. Curiosity, that for one reason or another, he felt he should reward with honesty.

"I believe so. Yes." Kenobi answered.

Silence swept through the camp after Kenobi finished. He kept his gaze to the sky, and Maul to the fire that continued to crackle on through the night. Almost as if each wanted to forget that the other was here or that they were who they were.

"In another life, if the Force had led us down different paths and we had made different choices, do you think we would've ended up in the same place?" Kenobi asked, his eyes not lingering from the far distant stars that sat in the darkness above them.

"I don't know." Maul replied said looking up from the fire and back to the man who had caused him so much pain. "Not much we can do about it now is there?"

Kenobi reluctantly nodded. "I suppose you're right."

Maul stood up from his seat and Kenobi did the same facing Maul with a small glint of sadness in his eye. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"What else can I do now?" Maul asked back activating his light saber. "I set out to find and kill you or die trying." Maul gritted his teeth as rage began to grip him once again. "It's the only thing I have left now.

Kenobi's sadness for his foe vanished at the words and his eyes once again hardened to that of the old warrior who had once been known throughout the galaxy. With wave of his hand, his own light saber ignited and he stood opposite of Maul. Adopting the stance he had used countless times in his youth.

"Come then. Let's finish this." Kenobi said.

A small smile flashed across Maul's face and Kenobi felt one of his own stretch from his mouth. This would be the last fight for Obi Wan Kenobi, no matter the outcome. And perhaps it was against the Jedi code, but just this once, he would allow himself a little bit of enjoyment in burying the past.

And then, not long after their smiles vanished, flashes of red and blue lit up the desert of Tatooine. The only visible signs of the last confrontation between Kenobi and Maul that anyone would ever see.

And not a soul witnessed it.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah. Wanted to try something a little different this time. I'm a fan of Rebels for what it is and I like how they ended Maul's story but I wished their could've been a little more dialogue between the two. Not quite like mine but something along the lines of it. But oh well, let me know what you guys thought.**


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